Machine for gathering, turning, and windrowing hay or the like



Sept. 9, 1952 H. K. CYMARA 2,609,651

MACHINE FOR GATHERING, TURNING, AND WINDROWI NG HAY OR THE LIKE Filed Jan. 10, 1949 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 P 9, 1952 H. K. CYMARA 2,609,651

MACHINE FOR GATHERING, TURNING, AND WINDROWING HAY OR THE LIKE Filed Jan. 10, 1949 2 SHEETS- 5m? 2 a 74 W h fwyeee Patented Sept. 9, 1952 .MACHINE Fon GATHERING, TURNING, AND

, WINDROWING-HAY on THE LIKE Hermann Karl Cymara, Willseyville, N. Y.

Application January 10, 1949, Serial No. 10,047

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a machine for gathering, turning and windrowing mown hay and, other grasses and plants, andhasfor its general object toprovide a machine-for these purposes which is of simple, practical construction and highly efiicient in operation- 7 I More particularly, a special and important object; of the invention is to provide a machine for the'purposes stated which is so designed that as,

it is advanced it gathers hay or the like over an area of'considerable width,,brings the gathered haypr the like laterally together into a compact 7 mass of narrowwidth and shallow depth, turns the compact mass so that What was-its underside ;;be c omes its upper side, and delivers the-f compact turned mass as awindrow atone side rine ma i Accordingto the invention, the machine comprises upwardly and rearwardly' inclined conveyors, arotary rake located in advance of-said conveyors to gather hay or the like and deliver ittqsaid conveyors, and a chute located .at the,

rear-of saidconveyors to receive hay or thelike from the latter and deliver-it toone side of the machine. In connection with such a machine, other objects of the invention are: to provide novel means to insure'that the hay or thedike will be gathered and, without 'being turned, will be delivered from the rotaryrake to the conveyors; to provide conveyors which are operable to bring the unturned hay -or the frame llland extending from front to rear thereof, preferably at the same upward and rearward like-into a compact mass of narrow width; to Y prqvide means for cooperation with said. conveyors to cause the narrow width mass of hay or the like to be compressed to shallow'depth, and to-provide a chute which, generally speaking,

is of helical form whereby it causes hay or the likegravitating down the same to be turnedend for end and therefore bottom side upward so v that what was the underside of the hay orthe like-hecomes-the upper side thereof as it is de-.

livered in a windrow at one side of the machine;

With the foregoing and other objects in view,

which will become more fully' apparent as the nature of the invention is better understood, the same consists in a machine for the purposes stated which embodies the novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts as'fare illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings and'as will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

In-the, accompanying drawings, wherein like: characters of reference denote corresponding parts in the different views: Figure l is-a side elevation of a machine constructed in-accordance with the invention; 1

Figurez is a top plan view of the machinej 1 Figure 3 is a front elevation of the machine;

machine on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

-F1gure 4 is a longitudinal section through the.

of Fig. 2; and

of Fig. 2. t V V Referring to the drawings in detail, it will be observed that the present machine comprises a a Figure 6 is a detail section on the line 6 6 suitable frame, designated generally as I0, andthat this frame is supported at a suitable up,- ward and rearward inclination by a front pair, of wheels II and a rear pair of wheels I 2. It. Will further be observed that the frame H) is of generally triangular shape as viewed in plan;

that it is considerablywider at its front end than at its rear end; thatits frontend i cus- T posed at right angles to. the direction of advance of the machine; that one side portion A thereof is disposed parallel to the direction of advance of the machine, and that the othersi de first mentioned side portion. I v I,

In the first mentioned side portion ofthe portion thereof converges rearwardly towardsaid inclination as said frame 10, is a belt conveyor l3 of any suitable construction and width, While covering the second mentioned side portion of said frame is a skidway i 4 which may be formed from any suitable'material such, for example, as sheet metal, and which'lis disposed in substantially the same plane as the upper reach of said belt conveyor l3.

While the belt conveyor I may be mounted and may be driven in any suitable manner such that'its upper reach moves rearwardly as the machine ,isadvanced, one simple, practical man,- ner of mounting and driving said belt'conveyor in this manner is to provide the same with sprocket chains l5fto provide adjacentito the front end of the frame, I!) idler sprocket'wheels I8 over which said sprocket chains travel; 'to, provide adjacent to the rear, end,.o f,said frame; ID a shaft [1 having ,fixed thereon sprocketv wheels I8 over which said sprocket chains extend,

and to suitably drive said shaft I] and, its

sprocket wheels 3 from the axle lot the rear'f pair of machine supporting wheels I 2." In this latter connection and as illustrated by way-of example in the drawings, a suitable driving connection' between the axle i9 and the shaft 11 may comprise a, spur gear 20 fixed to ?said axle l9 and meshing with a spur gear 2| mounted".

,on. the frame [0, and. a sprocket chainf22 con-' Figure 5 is a detail section, on the line '5- -5- spaced apart, parallel slots 25 which are inclined rearwardly and laterally toward the belt conveyor l3 and which extend from points adjacent to the front end of. said skidway to points adjacent to th'e inner side of said belt conveyor.

Beneath the skidway I4 are a plurality of endless sprocket chains 26 which are individual, re-

spectively, to the slots 25 and each of which is substantially co-extensive in. length with. and

underlies its related slot.

Suitably mounted beneath the skidway 14. ad

jacent to the front and the rear ends of each of the slots 25 are idler sprocketwheelsZ'l and 28,-

respectively, over which the sprocket chains 26 travel, while individual tov and engaged with said sprocket chains are driving, sprocket wheels 29 all of "which are fixed to a common drive shaft 30.

The drive shaft 30 extends beneath the skidway M at r-ight angles to the sprocket chains 23 and has its inner end extending beyond the inner side of the frame I and provided with a bevel pinion 3|. The inner end of the shaft i! also extends beyond the inner side of the frame l9 and; at its inner end is provided with a bevel pinion 32. Extending between the inner ends of said shafts H and 3B is another shaft 33 which is provided with bevel pinions 34 and 35 which mesh with thebevel pinions 3i and 32, respectively. Thus, all of the sprocket chains 26 are driven in harmony with each other and with the belt conveyor l3; driving gearing for said sprocket chains 26. is such, as shown, that the upper reaches of said sprocket chains travel rearwardly.

At points suitably spaced apart along their lengths, the sprocket chains 26 have fingers 36 projecting therefrom. Moreover, the upper reaches of said Sprocket chains 26 are disposed closelyadja'cent to the underface of the skidway l4 so that the fingers 33project from said upper reaches through the slots 25 suitable distances above the upper face of said skidway l4."

Thus, as the sprocket chains 26 are driven and their upper reaches travel rearwardly, the fingers 3B are effective to slide rearwardly over the skidway'M hay or other material which may be delivered to said skidway. Moreover, since the sprocket chains 26 are inclined rearwardly toward the belt conveyor I3, the fingers 36 are effective to slide hay or-the like delivered to the skidway 14 not only rearwardly over the lattenbut also laterally thereover toward the: belt conveyor [3.

' Suitably, mounted in advance of the front ends of'thebelt conveyor I3" and the skidway M. i a

rotary rake 31 which is composed of a shaft 38 having tines 39 in the form of yieldable spring fingers radiating therefrom. By means of a sprocketchain 40 connecting a sprocket wheel M .on the shaft 38 with a sprocket wheel 42 on.

a{ shaft 43'which carries the sprocket wheels l6, orfin any other suitable manner,, saidrake 3.7 isgrotated, asthe machine advances, in a direction counter'to the direction of rotation of the machine supporting, wheels Hand l2. Thus, said rake. is effective, as the machine advances, to pick up. mown hay or the like and to deliver it to. the frontor lower ends of the belt conveyor l3 and the skidway [4. In this connection and to assist the rake 31 in. performing its stated functiom-bridge bars, or fingers 44 are provided. tovextendf'rom the shaft .33 to the front. end of Moreover, the arrangement of the 4 the skidway l4 and to points adjacent to the front end of the belt conveyor l4 for the purpose of wiping hay or the like from the tines 33 as the latter approach and move downwardly from their vertical positions above the shaft 38 and for supporting the hay or the like while it is being urged rearwardly by the tines 39 across the space between. the rake3'! and the said front ends'of'said skidway and said belt conveyor. It will thus be apparent that as the machine advances, the tines 39 engage beneath the hay or the like and elevate it without turning it and that'thebridgelbars'fl cooperate with said tines toinsuredelivery of the hay or the like, still unlet, the bottom side thereof relative to its posithe upper portion of thebelt conveyor 13 thereby forming a rearwardly convergent throat'ior the purpose of compressing hay or'the like; being conveyed upwardly by said belt conveyor by limiting the thickness of material passing there through. r

At the'rear end of the machine is a chute:

47 which has a bottom 41' forming a material supporting portion and a side 41" forming a guid-- ing portion which may be formed from sheet metal or any other suitable-material and which has its front and disposed directly behind and slightly below the rear end of the belt conveyor" l3 so as to receive hay or'the likedeliv'ere'd from thelatter. Said chute 41 is inclined downwardly and rearwardly and also laterally outward from its front end so that hay or the like gravitates down the same and is delivered from its lower end in the form of a windrow at one side of the machine. Moreover, said chute is of helical formand the outlet thereof is near the ground so that'- as the hay or the like is discharged from the outtion on the belt conveyor, faces rearwardly. Consequently, as the machinemoves forwardly, the hay is deposited in the windrow and has a position the reverse of the position it occupied in the field before it was gathered. In other" words, what was the more or less damp underside of the hay or the like before it was gathered becomes; the upper part thereof in the windrow:

Substantially uniform drying of the hay orthe like, thereby is insured. Moreover, avoidance of turning of the hay or the likeby the rake 3'! or by any'means other than by the chute serves to avoid undesirable agitation of the hay or the like and consequent stripping of leaves from the same.

As illustrated in the drawings; a tongue=48 ex tends forwardly from the axle -l 9 whereby a" trac-'-- will be. observed that suitably in advance of the rear idler sprocket wheels 28 are other idler;

sprocket wheels 43 which cooperate. with the" frontidler sprocket wheels 27 and the. driving sprocket wheels 29 to. support the upper-reaches of the sprocket chains26. from. their front-ends to points near their rear ends substantiallyv against the under face of the skidway 14-. Thus between the sprocket wheels 21 and 49, the fingers 36 are caused to projectabovathexskidway- M te accomplish their purpose of moving hay or the like rearwardly over said skidway. However, it will also be observed by reference to Figure 6 that the tops of the sprocket wheels 28 are disposed below the skidway 14 by amounts substantially equal to the lengths of the fingers 36 so that between the sprocket wheels 49 and 28 the upper reaches of the sprocket chains 26 are inclined rearwardly and downwardly relative to the skidway M. It will thus be apparent that as the rear portions of the upper reaches of the sprocket chains 26 approach the sprocket wheels 28, the fingers 36 will be caused gradually to recede below the skidway [4 while they remain substantially upright. Said fingers thus will have little or no tendency to wipe the hay or the like downwardly into the slots 25.

Summarizing, it will be apparent that the present machine is designed to gather hay or the like over a relatively wide area; that the rake 3'! in conjunction with the bridge bars 44 is effective to elevate the hay or the like and, without turning it, to deliver it to the lower, front ends of the belt conveyor l3 and the skidway [4; that the sprocket chains 25 are effective to move hay or the like not only upwardly and rearwardly over the skidway l4, but also laterally thereacross toward the belt conveyor !3 whereby the hay or the like is brought together into a compact mass of narrow width; that the plate 46 causes the narrow width mass of hay or the like to be compressed as it approaches the rear end of the belt conveyor [3 and just prior to its delivery to the upper, front end of the chute 47, and that said chute 41 is effective to turn the narrow width, compressed mass of hay or the like end for end and bottom side upward and to deliver it so turned as a windrow at one side of the machine at a point substantially horizontally aligned with said rake, that is, close to the stubble and in the general horizontal plane of the rake, though of course further back and laterally spaced from 6 scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim: I I 1. A chute for use with a raking and elevating device including a rotary rake and an endless elevating conveyor extending from a point adjacent said rake to an elevated position; said chute comprising a top hood portion and a material supporting and guiding portion, said material supporting and guiding portion extending away from and downwardly from said top hood portion to a point substantially horizontally alined with said rake, said supporting and guiding portion having adjacent said top portion a bottom and a side, said bottom being gradually diminished in width and said side gradually extended over the bottom to a point where the remaining chute constitutes a substantially vertically extending portion of the top only, whereby material sliding down said chute is gradually turned and delivered at the lower end thereof in an inverted condition.

2. A chute for use with a raking and elevating device including a rotary rake and an endless elevating conveyor extending from a point adjacent said raketo an elevated position; said chute comprising a top hood portion and a material supporting and guiding portion, said material supporting and guiding portion extending away from and downwardly from said top hood portion to a point laterally spaced from the vertical alignment of the conveyor and substantially horizontally alined with said rake, said supporting and guiding portion having adjacent said top portion ,a bottom and aside, saidbottom being gradually diminished in width and said side gradually extended over the bottom to a point where the remaining chute constitutes a substantially vertically extending portion of the top only, whereby material sliding down said chute is gradually turned and delivered at the lower end thereof in an inverted condition.

- HERMANN KARL CYMARA.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 749,512 Anderson Jan. 12, 1904 1,406,946 Eiler Feb. 14, 1922 2,391,763 Anderson Dec. 25, 1945 

